Studying Personality 

Nomothetic Approach

Studying Personality 

Idiographic Approach 

Psychoanalytic Theory 

of Personality 

Freuds theory that Personality is composed of three elements 

Id, Ego, and Superego 

What was the underlying motivation 

behind Freuds Work?

Reasearch done in Paris und Jean Charcot 

Studies patients with "Grande Hysteria"

The investigation turned up no physical causes and failure to find a case led Freud to believe that mental disorders were psychological rather than physiological 

Sigmund Freud 

"The unconscious continues to...."

A slip made by the unconscious mind. 

Calling someone the wrong name or mixing up a word in a conversation 

These misstatements are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or feelings 

Personality

Researchers Prior to Sigmund Freud 

Sigmund Freud 

"The goal of psychoanalysis is to..." 

Psychoanalysis technique where the client 

expresses themselves with out censorship

Psychoanalysis is Un-falsifiable because 

Psychich Determinism 

Symbolic Meaning 

Unconscious Motivation 

Assumption of Psychoanalysis

Psychic Determinism 

Assumption of Psychoanalysis

Symbolic Meaning 

Assumption of Psychoanalysis 

Unconscious Motivation 

In the psychoanalytic theory what did the body of the ice berg represent 

Id

Ego 

Superego 

Freud's Personality Structure

ID

The impulse 

Sex and aggression 

Governed by the means of pleasure

Tendency to strive for immediate gratification 

Freud's Personality Structure

Ego

The Mediator 

The principle Decision maker 

Governed by the reality principle 

Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet 

Freud's Personality Structure 

Superego 

The Parent 

Our sense of morality 

Sense of right and wrong 

People with 

over-developed supergos are guilt prone 

Oral

Anal 

Phallic 

Latency 

Genital 

Stages of Psychosexual Development

Oral Fixation 

Nipple sucking 

smoking cigaretts 

Pleasure centers on the mouth 

Stages of Psychosexual Development

Anal Fixation 

Potty Training

Obsessed with control 

Focuses on bladder and bowel movements 

Stages of Psychosexual Development

Phallic 

(Sexual Fixation)

Coping with sexual feelings 

Becoming sexually mature 

Pleasure zone is the genitals 

Fixation 

Obsession with an attachment to amother human, an animal, or inanimate object 

Follows of Sigmund Freud 

Broke away from their mentor to make their own models of personality 

Unconscious mind 

Importance of early experience shaping personality 

Neo-Freudian 

Alfred Alder 

Style of Life 

According to Alder 

Style of life is 

each person's distinctive way of achieving superioridy 

Feelings of low self esteem that can lead to over compensation for such feelings 

(Short-Man Complex)

Children who were pampered or neglected are at later risk

Neo-Freudian  

Karen Horney

The first major feminist personality theorist

Rejected Freud's Sexual Interest 

Believed that Freud's research was misguided and gender biased

Believe that womens sense of inferiority stems from excessive dependency on men.

Believed that the inferiority complex was a symptom rather than a cause of psychological problems 

Neo-Freudian

Erik Erickson 

Psychological Development 

Agreed with Freud's unconscious mind but said there is more than repressed thoughts and feelings and sexual drives 

Believed in lifetime Psychological Development

Neo-Freudian 

Carl Jung 

Anointed by Freud to be the bearer of the next generationof psychology 

The Collective Unconscious

Classified Freuds unconscious as personal unconscious

Believed in an unconcious underlying the personal unconscious 

Collective Unconscious 

Cross-culturally shared universal symbols

Shared experiences rather than 

shared geans man account for 

commonalities in archetypes across 

the world

A method used to discover the root of psychoogical problems 

Meant to reveal things about the unconscious mind for examinees to interpret 

Founded by B.F. Skinner 

Rejected Freud's theory that the first few years of life were critical in personality development 

Believed that learning molds our personality throughout our life span 

Free will in and illusion 

We are convinced that we are free to select our behaviors only because we are usually oblivious to situational factors that trigger them 

Personality consists of behaviors 

Personality is outside us 

Black Box of Cognition 

Behavioral View 

Influenced by Radical Behaviorists 

Emphasized thinking as a cause of personality 

Proposed that much of learning occurs by Observation 

Conditioning(Learning)depends on thought

Reciprocal Determinism 

Social Cognitive Theory 

Reciprocal Determinism 

Locus of Control 

(Personal Control) 

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless. 

The belief of the amount of 

power a person has over their life. 

The perception that outside forces beyond your control determine's your fate 

"I'm controlled by my environment"

External Locus Contol is 

associated with Anxiety and Depression 

The perception that one controls one's own fate 

"I am able to contol my environment"

Tendency to feel helpless in the face 

of events we can't control 

Proposes that people are motivated to satisfy basic requirements and then strive to achieve self-actualization.

Focuses on more positive qualities of healthy people

Is un-falsifiable.

Humanism 

Self-Actualization 

Humanistic Psychologists Views on 

Determinism 

Rejected determinism of psychoanalyst and behaviorists.

Believed in Free Will 

Humanism 

Abraham Maslow

Believed that we could all achieve our full potential for emotional fulfillment if only society would allow it 

Maslow's Hierachy of Needs

People are motivated to satisfy basic requirements and then strive to achieve self-actualization 

Humanism 

Carl Rogers 

Believed that our personalities consists of three major components: 

Organism, Self, Conditions of Worth 

Known for his Unconditional Positive Regard 

Rogers Model of Personality

Organism 

Our innate and genetically influenced, blueprint.

Similar to to Freud's ID, except rogers viewed the organismy as inherently positive and healpful toward others 

Rogers Model of Personality

Self 

Rogers Model of Personality

Conditions of Worth 

Expectation we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

Similare to Superego 

Resuts in Incongruence (inconsistency) between self and organism 

Inconsistency between our personalities and innate dispositions 

We are no longer ourselves because we are ating in ways that are inconsistent with our underlying potential 

The Big Five Factors of Personality 

(Traits)

C-A-N-O-E

C-onscientiousness 

A-greeableness

N-euroticism 

O-penness 

E-xtraversion 

Influnceby the Lexical Approach

The Big Five Factors of Personality

Conscientiousness

The Big Five Factors of Personality

Agreeableness 

The Big Five Factors of Personality

Neuroticism 

The Big Five Factors of Personality

Openness

The big Five Factors of Personality 

Extraversion

The Person-Situation Controversy 

People tend to behave predictably over time across situations 

(Traits Matter)

Learning that certain events occur together 

We acquire all of our knowledge by conditioning, forming associations amung stumuli 

Mothers voice and face.

You only need one to recall the other 

Associative Learning 

David Hume and John Lock

Views on Learning

We learn things in serial 

People learn when things follow other things 

Ivan Pavlov

(Behaviorist) 

Classical Conditioning 

Demonstrated that the learning process could be used to make an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occuring stimulus

Digestion in dogs 

His digestion discoveries won him a Nobel Prize 

Forming association between stimuli 

actions that are automatic responses to stimulus 

Classical Conditioning pairs things together 

People eat food before going to get cancer treatment then connect that food with the nausea they feel after receiving the cancer treatment 

Try to condition people against fears by instilling happy feelings associated with the feared thing 

Research influenced by Thornedike 

Developed Skinners Box 

Operant Conditioning 

Operant Conditioning 

(B.F. Skinner)

Learning controlled by the consequences of the organisms behavior 

Increasing or decreasing the likelihood of voluntary response 

Modification of "voluntary behavior"

(Pos/neg Reinforcement, Punishment) 

Positive is adding, negative is taking away 

Reinforcement is promoting behavior, punishment is decreasing behavior 

Add a desirable stimulus to encourage a behavior

Taking away an aversive stimulus to stop behavior 

The "original" Behavioral psychologist 

Supported John Lock and Pavlov

Focused on Human conditioning 

Popularized classical conditioning and the coffee break 

Little Albert 

Watson felt that if you can train someone to fear something that is typically very friendly then you can train them to do anything. 

Experiment where watson applied conditioning to humans. 

Little Albert was afraid of the rat because of the association with the loud noise. 

Operant Conditioning 

Thorndike's Law of Effect 

B.F. Skinner used his idease for operant conditioning

Rewarded behavior is likely to recur.

Cat in the puzzle box(This experiment made him famous).

bobo doll experiment

No reinforcement needed

Proff of environmental effets on development 

Stimulus that originally produces no response

Pattern of behavior resulting from a demanding discrimination learning task

Typically one that involves aversive stimuli 

Jerry’s wife Mary gets a new nightgown and wears it whenever she is in the mood for sexual relations. After a month, the sight of the nightgown alone (without Mary) is enough to excite Jerry

Identify the types of stimulus and responses:

The ability to perceive and respond to differences among stimuli.

So for example, green and red lights at a traffic light. Go when its green, stop when it's red.

Blank Slate 

John Locke 

Which experiences Shapes 

Regardthem selves and their own opinions or interests as being the most important or valid

Typically in children 

The ability to attribute mental states

To understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from ones own 

Studied Children's intellegence

Proposed that children looked at things differently 

Stages of cognitive development 

Manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting 

characteristic of a specific person 

We face a unique psychosocial tas at each stage of life 

Ongoing healthy development involves successfully achieving each task.

Failur at any given stage will result in a different undesirable psychosocial reality 

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory 

Trust Vs. Mistrust 

(Infancy)

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory 

Identity Vs. Role Confustion 

(Teen-20's)

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory 

Intimacy Vs. Isolation 

(20s-40s)

Kohlberg's Moral Ladder

(Stages of Development) 

Postconventional Level 

Conventional level  

Preconventional Level 

Kohlberg's Moral Ladder

(Stages of Development) 

Postconventional Level 

Conventional level 

Of Development 

Morality of law and social rules:

To gain approval or avoid disapproval 

Kohlberg's Moral Ladder

(Stages of Development) 

Preconventional Level

Morality of self interest:

to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards 

Participants are presented with stimuli

After a delay they are asked to remember as many of the stimuli as possible 

declines with age 

accumulated knowledge, vocabulary. 

Remains stable or increases during aging 

Stages of psychosexual Development

Latency 

Domant Sexual Feelings 

Sex Crazy Takes a Break 

Maturation of sexual interets

Sexually becoming mature and interacting sexually